Fast Flip

Designers: Ken Gruhl, Quentin Weir

Publisher: Blue Orange

Players: 2-8

Time: ~10 minutes

Times played: about 10, all in a single rain delay!

Fast Flip is a new small format card game from Blue Orange. The US branch of this company is fairly new to the boardgaming scene, though they made a pretty good impression on me last Origins with New York 1901. I had recently received the game in the mail, and it was actually in my game bag waiting for the next game night… But, last weekend, while waiting out a soccer rain delay, the kids were looking for a way to pass the time, and out came Fast Flip!

The game comes in a small metal triangular shaped tin – about 4” per side – and it holds a deck of cards and some scoring tokens. There are a number of different game modes to play, though they all rely on the same basic mechanism, being able to rapidly look at two cards and find the commonality.

The cards are double sided. One side has a mishmash of fifteen similar looking (and similarly colored) fruits: raspberries, strawberries, pineapples, oranges and bananas. They are scattered around the triangular card, and each variety is present in different quantities (1 thru 5). The back sides of the cards have either a number (1 thru 5) or one of the five fruits.

In the first game mode, Flip It! – the entire deck is shuffled, and placed jumbled fruit side up. When all players are ready, the top card is flipped over (to reveal the back side which has either a large number or a single fruit type) and players race to yell out the answer. If a number is on the card, players need to name the fruit which is seen that number of times on the next card… or if it’s a fruit type, players need to yell out the number of times that fruit is on the next card. The first player to correctly give the answer takes the top card as a scoring marker. Then, the top card is flipped over to provide the next question and the game continues on… The game goes until the deck is exhausted (a total of 53! Rounds) – and the player with the most cards wins.

In the second mode – Token Grab – the ten scoring markers are used. The game is played in a similar format to the first mode, but when the correct answer is given, the matching scoring marker (with the correct number or fruit type) is taken from the center of the table OR from the player currently holding it. The game ends as soon as a player has four scoring markers in their possession at one time.

The third mode – Token Line – again uses the tokens, but in a slightly different way. This time, the cards are shuffled and the jumbled sides are face down. The tokens are placed in a line, and the leftmost token is the “question”. The top card is flipped over and players then race to give the answer to the leftmost token. The winner takes the token and the game goes until all 10 have been taken, the winner is the player with the most. (This is essentially the same as game 1, but with only 10 rounds instead of 53.)

This proved to be a decent way to spend the hour off while waiting for the thunder and lightning to leave the area. For us, the Token Grab game was the big winner – allowing for a game that did not outstay its welcome. The first version, playing thru the entire deck, felt a bit prolonged to me, but the group of boys didn’t seem to mind… The boys on the soccer team had a great time with it, and I’m pretty sure that a number of them will end up with their own copies of the game. The rounds are obviously quick (as little as 2-3 seconds!) but it’s the sort of thing where everyone can participate and have fun. This is obviously not the kind of game that will get extended play with the regular group, but I think it’s going to find a home in my car or one of the kids’ soccer bags for situations like the one we just needed it for!